MTH Premier 70' ABS Passenger Cars Minimum Curve

I have several MTH Premier sets, both streamlined and heavyweight ("Madison") cars.  They really do need 042 minimum as MTH suggests.  If you must run on 036 curves go with the RailKing cars. 

They seem to get around the O36, at least one set of five PRR Heavyweight cars I have does.  They look odd doing it, and I don't know if that is a universal capability of all the Premier 18" cars.

I have looped MTH 18" C&O and N&W on 036 FasTrack. John, "odd" is a very succinct way of describing it. If it were me, I'd back off to the 16" cars.

Gilly 

Well, they did go around an oval of O36, but I wouldn't want anything close on the inside of the curves!

Thanks for the replies, but these cars are 19 inches long a piece, not 18...

Well, not really.  I suggest using your tape measure, not reading the box.  They say 19", but the cars are really 18" long. 

I thought these cars were only 17.5 inches long since MTH advertises them as 70 footers. They are noticeably shorter than Lionel's or K-Line's 18 inch cars.

Ron

FCOL! Coach body 17 9/16", Diaphragm to diaphragm 18 5/8" Coupler to coupler 19". The difference of

1 7/16" is squat. Going around 036 they look like crabs facing off to fight each other.

Gilly

Another problem not mentioned is getting trains that require a larger radius curve through switches. I can run a MTH premier AC4400 diesel on 031 curves even though it requires 042 curves but I have 2 problems doing it. The first is that it looks hideous. The second is that the fuel tank catches on Lionel tubular switch motors unless you move the motors to the other side of the switch.

Definitely need O-42 or larger. K-Line once advertised its 18" aluminum passenger cars could navigate O-31, but that was only because its cars had special sprung skirts that would swing out, thus giving more room for the coupler to move. Clever idea, but the overhang on O-31 curves was terrible.

-John